20:1  ?a. Ha

20:2  We did not send down the Quran unto thee that thou shouldst be distressed

20:3  but only as a reminder unto one who fears [God]

20:4  a revelation from He, Who created the earth and the high heavens

20:5  The Compassionate mounted the Throne

20:6  Unto Him belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on the earth, whatsoever is between them, and whatsoever lies beneath the ground

20:7  And if thou speakest aloud, verily He knows what is secret and what is more hidden still

20:8  God, there is no god but He. Unto Him belong the Most Beautiful Names

20:9  Hast thou heard tell of Moses

20:10  when he saw a fire and said unto his family, “Stay here. Verily I perceive a fire. Perhaps I shall bring you a brand therefrom, or find guidance at the fire”

20:11  Then when he came to it, he was called, “O Moses

20:12  Verily I am thy Lord. Take off thy sandals. Truly thou art in the holy valley of ?uwa

20:13  I have chosen thee, so listen to what is revealed

20:14  Truly I am God, there is no god but I. So worship Me, and perform the prayer for the remembrance of Me

20:15  Surely the Hour is coming. I would keep it hidden, that every soul might be recompensed for its endeavors

20:16  So let not he who believes not and follows his caprices turn thee away from it, or thou wilt perish

20:17  And what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?

20:18  He said, “It is my staff. I lean upon it and beat down leaves for my sheep. And I have other uses for it.

20:19  He said, “Cast it, O Moses!

20:20  So he cast it, and behold, it was a serpent, moving swiftly

20:21  He said, “Take hold of it, and fear not! We shall restore it to its former way

20:22  And enclose thy hand in thy side. It will come forth white, without blemish, as another sign

20:23  that We may show thee some of Our greatest signs

20:24  Go unto Pharaoh! Truly he has rebelled!

20:25  He said, “My Lord! Expand for me my breast

20:26  Make my affair easy for me

20:27  and untie a knot from my tongue

20:28  that they may understand my speech

20:29  And appoint for me a helper from among my family

20:30  Aaron, my brother

20:31  Through him, increase my strength

20:32  and make him a partner in my affair

20:33  that we may glorify Thee muc

20:34  and remember Thee much

20:35  Truly Thou dost ever see us.

20:36  He said, “Thou hast been granted thy request, O Moses

20:37  And We have indeed shown thee favor another time

20:38  when We revealed to thy mother that which was revealed

20:39  ‘Cast him into the ark and cast it into the sea. Then the sea will throw him upon the bank. An enemy unto Me and an enemy unto him shall take him.’ And I cast upon thee a love from Me, that thou mightest be formed under My eye

20:40  When thy sister went forth and said, ‘Shall I show you one who can nurse him?’ Thus We returned thee to thy mother that she might be comforted and grieve not. And thou didst slay a soul, but We saved thee from sorrow. And We tried thee with trials. Then thou didst remain some years among the people of Midian. Then thou didst come, as determined, O Moses

20:41  I selected thee for Myself

20:42  Go forth, thou and thy brother, with My signs, and tire not in the remembrance of Me

20:43  Go, both of you, unto Pharaoh! Truly he has rebelled

20:44  Yet speak unto him gently, that haply he may remember or have fear.

20:45  They said, “Our Lord! Truly we fear that he will deal hastily with us, or that he will transgress.

20:46  He said, “Fear not! Truly I am with ye twain; I hear and I see

20:47  So come unto him and say, ‘Truly we are two messengers of your Lord. So send forth with us the Children of Israel and punish them not. We have brought you a sign from your Lord. Peace be upon him who follows guidance

20:48  Truly it has been revealed unto us that punishment shall come upon him who denies and turns away.’

20:49  He said, “So who is the Lord of you two, O Moses?

20:50  He said, “Our Lord is He Who gives everything its creation, then guides [it].

20:51  He said, “What, then, of former generations?

20:52  He said, “Knowledge thereof is with my Lord in a Book—He errs not, nor does He forget

20:53  the One Who made the earth a cradle for you, and threaded paths for you therein. He sent down water from the sky, wherewith We brought forth diverse kinds of vegetation [saying]

20:54  ‘Eat and pasture your cattle.’” Truly in that are signs for those possessed of intelligence

20:55  From it We created you, and unto it We shall bring you back, and from it We shall bring you forth a another time

20:56  We indeed showed him Our signs, all of them; yet he denied and refused

20:57  He said, “Have you come to us in order to expel us from our land with your sorcery, O Moses

20:58  But we shall surely produce for you sorcery like it. So appoint a tryst between you and us at a neutral place, which neither you nor we shall fail to keep.

20:59  He said, “Your tryst shall be on the Day of Adornment; let the people be gathered when the sun has risen high.

20:60  Then Pharaoh turned away and devised his scheme. Then he came

20:61  Moses said to them, “Woe unto you! Do not fabricate a lie against God, lest He should destroy you with a punishment. Whosoever fabricates [lies] has failed.

20:62  So they debated their affair among themselves and kept secret their intimate discourse

20:63  They said, “These two are sorcerers who wish to expel you from your land with their sorcery and to do away with your exemplary way of life

20:64  So gather your plot, then come in ranks. Today, whosoever gains the upper hand will surely have prospered!

20:65  They said, “O Moses! Either you cast, or we shall be the first to cast.

20:66  He said, “Nay, you cast.” Then, behold, their ropes and their staffs appeared to him, through their sorcery, to move swiftly

20:67  whereat Moses conceived a fear in his soul

20:68  We said, “Fear not! Truly thou art uppermost

20:69  Cast that which is in thy right hand; it will devour what they have produced. They have produced only a sorcerer’s trick. And the sorcerer prospers not, wherever he may go.

20:70  Then the sorcerers were cast down in prostration. They said, “We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.

20:71  He said, “Do you believe in Him before I give you leave? He is indeed your chief, who has taught you sorcery. Now I shall surely cut off your hands and your feet on alternate sides, and I shall surely crucify you on the trunks of palm trees. And you will surely know which of us [inflicts] a more severe and lasting punishment!

20:72  They said, “We shall never prefer you to the clear proofs that have come to us, nor to Him who originated us. So decree whatsoever you decree; you only decree in the life of this world

20:73  Truly we believe in our Lord, that He may forgive us our sins and the sorcery that you compelled us to perform. And God is better and more lasting!

20:74  Verily, whosoever comes unto his Lord guilty, surely his shall be Hell, wherein he neither dies nor lives

20:75  But whosoever comes unto Him as a believer, having performed righteous deeds, theirs shall be the highest ranks

20:76  Gardens of Eden with rivers running below, abiding therein. That is the recompense of one who purifies himself

20:77  And We indeed revealed unto Moses, “Set forth with My servants by night and strike for them a dry path through the sea. Be not afraid of being overtaken, and fear not.

20:78  Then Pharaoh pursued them with his hosts, and they were overwhelmed by the sea that enshrouded them

20:79  Pharaoh led his people astray, and guided them not

20:80  O Children of Israel! We have saved you from your enemies and have appointed a tryst for you on the right side of the Mount. And We sent down unto you manna and quails

20:81  Eat of the good things We have provided you, but exceed not the limits therein, lest My Wrath be unleashed upon you. And he upon whom My Wrath is unleashed has been cast into ruin

20:82  And surely I am most forgiving toward the one who repents and believes and works righteousness, and thereafter is rightly guided

20:83  “What hast made thee hasten from thy people, O Moses?

20:84  He said, “They are close upon my footsteps, and I hastened unto Thee, my Lord, that Thou mayest be content.

20:85  He said, “Truly We tried thy people in thine absence, and the Samaritan led them astray.

20:86  Then Moses returned to his people, angry and aggrieved. He said, “O my people! Did your Lord not make you a goodly Promise? Did the pact seem too long for you? Or did you desire that the anger of your Lord be unleashed upon you, such that you failed your tryst with me?

20:87  They said, “We did not fail our tryst with thee of our own will, but we were laden with the burden of the people’s ornaments. So we cast them [into the pit], and thus did the Samaritan throw also.

20:88  Then he brought forth for them a calf as a mere body that lowed, and they said, “This is your god and the god of Moses, though he has forgotten.

20:89  Have they not considered that it does not respond to them with words, and that it has no power over what harm or benefit may come to them

20:90  And Aaron had indeed said to them earlier, “O my people! You are merely being tested by this, and truly your Lord is the Compassionate. So follow me and obey my command!

20:91  They said, “We shall not cease to be its devotees till Moses returns unto us.

20:92  He said, “O Aaron! What hindered thee, when thou didst see them going astray

20:93  that thou didst not follow me? Didst thou disobey my command?

20:94  He said, “O son of my mother! Seize not my beard or my head. Truly I feared that thou wouldst say, ‘Thou hast caused division among the Children of Israel, and thou hast not heeded my word.’

20:95  He said, “What was your purpose, O Samaritan?

20:96  He said, “I saw that which they saw not. So I took a handful [of dust] from the footsteps of the messenger, and I cast it. Thus did my soul prompt me.

20:97  He said, “Be gone! In this life it shall be yours to say, ‘Touch [me] not!’ And truly for you there is a tryst that you cannot fail to keep. Now observe your god, to whom you remained devoted: we shall surely burn it and scatter its ashes in the sea!

20:98  Your only god is God, besides whom there is no other god. He encompasses all things in knowledge

20:99  Thus do We narrate unto thee some of the accounts of those who have come before. And We have given thee a Reminder from Our Presence

20:100  Whosoever turns away from it, verily he shall bear it as a burden on the Day of Resurrection

20:101  abiding therein. How evil a burden for them on the Day of Resurrection

20:102  the Day the trumpet shall be blown, and We shall gather the guilty on that Day, blind

20:103  They will whisper among themselves, “You have tarried only ten [days].

20:104  We know well that which they will say, when the most exemplary of them in conduct will say, “You have tarried only a day!

20:105  They ask thee about the mountains. Say, “My Lord shall scatter them as ashes

20:106  And He will leave it a barren plain

20:107  You will see no crookedness or curvature therein.

20:108  On that Day they shall follow a herald in whom there is no crookedness. And voices will be humbled before the Compassionate, and you will hear naught but a murmur

20:109  On that Day intercession will be of no benefit, save [that of] those whom the Compassionate has granted leave and with whose word He is content

20:110  He knows that which is before them and that which is behind them, and they encompass Him not in knowledge

20:111  Faces will be humbled before the Living, the Self-Subsisting. And whosoever bears wrongdoing will have failed

20:112  But whosoever performs righteous deeds and is a believer, he shall fear neither wrong nor deprivation

20:113  Thus have We sent it down as an Arabic Quran, and We have varied the threat therein that haply they may be reverent, or [that] it might occasion remembrance for them

20:114  Exalted is God, the True Sovereign. Be not in haste with the Quran before its revelation is completed for thee, but say, “My Lord! Increase me in knowledge!

20:115  And We indeed made a pact with Adam aforetime, but he forgot. And We found no resoluteness in him

20:116  And when We said unto the angels, “Prostrate yourselves before Adam,” they prostrated, save Iblis; he refused

20:117  We said, “O Adam! Truly this is an enemy unto thee and thy wife. So let him not expel the two of you from the Garden, such that thou wouldst be wretched

20:118  Truly it is for thee that thou shalt neither hunger therein, nor go naked

20:119  and that thou shalt neither thirst therein, nor suffer from the heat of the sun.

20:120  Then Satan whispered to him. He said, “O Adam! Shall I show thee the Tree of Everlastingness and a kingdom that never decays?

20:121  So they both ate therefrom. Then their nakedness was exposed to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the Garden. Adam disobeyed his Lord, and so he erred

20:122  Then his Lord chose him, and relented unto him and guided [him]

20:123  He said, “Get down from it, both you together, each of you an enemy to the other. And if guidance should come unto you from Me, then whosoever follows My Guidance shall not go astray, nor be wretched

20:124  But whosoever turns away from the remembrance of Me, truly his shall be a miserable life, and We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection.

20:125  He will say, “My Lord! Why hast Thou raised me blind, when I used to see?

20:126  He will say, “Thus it is. Our signs came unto you, but you forgot them. Even so, this Day shall you be forgotten!

20:127  Thus do We recompense whosoever is prodigal and believes not in the signs of his Lord. And surely the punishment of the Hereafter is more severe and more lasting

20:128  Does it not serve as guidance for them, how many generations We destroyed before them, amid whose dwellings they walk? Truly in that are signs for those possessed of intelligence

20:129  And were it not for a Word that had already gone forth from thy Lord and a term appointed, it would be inevitable

20:130  So bear patiently that which they say, and hymn the praise of thy Lord before the rising of the sun and before its setting, and in the hours of the night glorify [Him], and at the ends of the day, that haply thou mayest be content

20:131  Strain not thine eyes toward the enjoyments We have granted certain classes of them, as the splendor of the life of this world, that We may test them concerning it. The provision of thy Lord is better and more lasting

20:132  And bid thy family to prayer and be steadfast therein. We ask no provision of thee; We provide for thee. And the end belongs to reverence

20:133  They say, “Why has he not brought us a sign from his Lord?” Has there not come unto them the clear proof of that which is in the scriptures of old

20:134  Had We destroyed them with a punishment before it, they would have said, “Our Lord! If only Thou hadst sent a messenger unto us, we would have followed Thy signs before being abased and disgraced.

20:135  Say, “Each is waiting, so wait! For you shall come to know those who are the companions of the sound path, and those who are rightly guided.